TOM
by Imp
Summary: *Fourth Chapter Added: 8/30/01*Harry and his gang are now graduated and the Dark Lord has again become a myth and a familiarity among curse words. But what has happened to Hogwarts reputable staff? What has changed for the students? Let's see...
1. The Beginning

When Life Changes Its Tune

TOM 

Chapter 1

** **

By Imp (With the assistance of A small Bomb) 

Note: Some people may be wondering what I think I'm doing starting something new when I haven't finished either, Catastrophic or Claustrophobic? or The Wizard's Dare? . I'm working on those – and I'm writing this, and many other things, if you were wondering.

About this though, it is about a boy attending Hogwarts long after Mr. Harry Potter. His name is Thomas James Laurence William Parkington and he is quite a character. He was originally a character for a role-playing game, but I've gotten permission from his "creator" to write him into a story– along with some of the other characters he interacted with on the role-play board. Also, as I don't have permission to use some of the other characters "Tom" interacted with in the role-play, I have either substituted a new character or changed personalities and names. As you might have guessed, a few of the prominent professors and personages of the Hogwarts staff will not still be at their former places as it has been at least four years since the famous Harry J. Potter has graduated and they may well have retired by then (for example, Flitwick, or perhaps McGonnagall) – although I have decided to leave Dumbledore in his position of Headmaster, at least for Parkington's first year.

If you'd like more info, you have permission to email me; you will find my email address in my FF.N profile. **-IMP**

~*~

If there was anything in the world that Thomas James Laurence William Parkington hated, it was a loud, obnoxious, proud, overbearing girl who thought she was beautiful and good in every way. Tom had hoped for a secluded, quiet compartment where he could mull over his plans for the year and ignore his apprehensions concerning which house he would be sorted into – but instead he had gotten the compartment that had the most annoyingly unbearable girls in it – and one of them obviously thought he was cute!

"As I was saying…" The first girl giggled. "Oh! I'm sorry, I'm Angelica Jones!" She jumped up and held her hand out to a decidedly uneasy looking Tom, who shook it gingerly and glanced out the window, hoping to see the awe inspiring presence of the Hogwarts castle.

"And this is my friend!" Angelica cried, gesturing emphatically to her companion. "Her name is Sabrina Talents,"

Sabrina nodded, "I'm going to be a Gryffindor prefect - and then Head Girl." She said softly.

"Er, nice to meet you… I-I just forgot, I left my, um, trunk out in the hall and I need to get it-" Tom said quickly and sprang up, ready to escape the close confines of the compartment, stuffed with the two girls' things, but Angelica stopped him, pushing him back into his seat.

"Don't be silly!" She said. "Your trunk's right there!"

Tom slumped down in his seat, making up his mind to endure the constant noise of the two girls' chatting and nodding or answering randomly every now and then when there talk was directed at him.

"And there's a ball every Halloween…" Angelina droned on.

Tom gradually fell into a stupor and his eyelids drooped; so far, his act had worked, and neither Angelina, nor her friend seemed to suspect that he was only replying with a completely random and neutral phrase when he noticed one of them had said something to him.

"Is that so…?" He said absently, thinking over everything his older brother had told him about the Wizarding school and wondering how much of it was truth and how much exaggeration…. Perhaps he _would_ have to jump off the top castle turret to enter the school…

"I said, do you like to dance?" Angelica snapped, repeating what she had already inquired.

"Is that so…?" Tom said vacuously.

"You weren't even listening to me!" Angelica cried, stomping. "What's your name anyways?"

"Huh-what? Name – oh, er – Tom." Tom stuttered, not completely sure he had heard right in the first place.

" 'Tom' what?" Sabrina interjected quietly.

"P-Parkington." Tom stated as though this were the most obvious fact in the world.

"Good." Angelica smiled. "I'm sure you didn't mean to miss my last question. You must be tired – where did you say you were from again?"

Tom scooted back a little farther in his seat and eyed Angelica warily; he was definitely not going to find this girl any more pleasant as the day wore on.

"I'm from London." He muttered, absently pulling on a strand of his dark hair as he leaned on his hand.

"Really? Are both your parents British?" Sabrina piped up suddenly.

"Er, my mum's American – from the United States you know…" Tom responded tiredly; this was going to be an extremely long journey.

"How old are you, precisely? Do you have any brothers or sisters…?"

~*~

The train came to a hard stop and Tom steadied himself, leaning back a moment before springing to his feet, cutting his two unwanted companions off, and trying unsuccessfully to pull his trunk from under his seat.

"Don't worry about that Thomas," Sabrina smiled with superiority. "Someone from the castle will take it to your dorm."

Tom started as Angelica tapped his shoulder and bolted into the hall, missing whatever the girl tried to say and surprising the inhabitants of the next compartment as he raced in and then out the other side of their space.

"Don't you think he's cute, Sabrina?" Angelica asked after she had gotten over the shock of Tom's swift disappearance.

"Oh, quite," Sabrina responded, sniffing disdainfully. "But he could use to work on his habits."

Tom, incidentally, was the first off the train, and was almost the first student ever to fall off the platform and into the underbrush about it, in his wild haste to leave behind the stifling talk and questions of his accidental companions from the train.Fortunately, another first year like himself, exiting the train just a little after he had, grabbed the back of his robes and just barely kept him from tumbling into a gorse bush.

"What're you running from? The Dark Lord himself?" The boy asked, looking Tom up and down with a prideful glint in his eye.

"Oh, what? No, no, it's just – what, the Dark Lord? Where-" Tom stammered confusedly, finally turning to look at the boy who had stopped his wild progress.

The boy, his blond hair shining in the fading sunlight, stepped a pace back and held his hand out.

"I'm Devin Avery, what's your name?" he said, smiling slightly.

Tom took the other boy's hand automatically, "I'm Tom-Thomas Parkington." He responded, glancing over Devin's shoulder anxiously, hoping he would not see Angelica and her ambitious comrade.

"Pureblood?" Devin asked.

"Huh – What?" Tom said.

"Are you a pureblood?"

"Oh, yes – uh, where or when, that is, will we go to the castle?"

"Soon," Devin replied, turning away from Tom and waving energetically to another boy just coming out of the train.

~*~

In a few moments, all of the new and old students had exited the train and had grouped in a relatively orderly fashion, the new ones standing for the most part to the side in an anxious circle, the older ones slowly filtering out and into the growing darkness and vanishing from sight.

"When do _we_ go?" Tom whispered.

"'Dunno," A small light-haired girl said, glancing around curiously. "But its bound to be exciting."

"Like big explosions and fireworks?" Tom asked eagerly.

"No; I doubt it." The girl answered, and looked away.

Tom slumped his shoulders disappointedly and gazed at his feet; _something_ should have happened by now.

"First Years! First Years! This way! Over here, boys an' girls! This way!" A loud voice boomed.

Tom's head shot up and he looked around exuberantly; finally, something was happening!

"Over here! Over here!" A small, pale man appeared at the edge of the platform, gesturing toward a faded path in the dirt energetically as he called in ever increasing rapidity to the group of unsure students. Tom was the first to step forward and follow the man, and the rest soon followed his example and trooped onto the damp path. The castle was suddenly visible and a series of astounded gasps broke the dreary half-silence of the scuffling feet and Tom gave a wild whoop of surprise at its grand turrets and towers. He would certainly have his hands full discovering new passages and halls – not to mention finding his classes on time. But classes and professors only occupied Tom's mind when they concerned trouble and obstacles in his plans, and they swiftly slipped away to be replaced by the frightened yells and squeals of the older students when he imagined himself dropping spiders and cobwebs on their black-hooded heads. What fun!

Unfortunately, his happy thoughts were cut short by the pale little man's quick voice, "Into the boats students… Into the boats and across the lake to Hogwarts." He said.

"But why this way? I'll get wet! Couldn't we go the way the older kids went?" A new voice gasped.

"No, into the boats – please, it will be done with if you just do it!"

"I can't get into a boat!" Tom cried. "I-I'm scared of boats!"

"Please, just come. Nothing will happen to you…" The man tried to console the frantic group of children. 

"What about the squid!" A large, angry looking boy called sullenly.

"Yes! What about it?" A girl gasped shrilly.

"I can't get in a boat! I'll die!" Tom cut in.

The man sighed and put his hand to his head. "Why couldn't I have been the caretaker…" He moaned.

"I'll just swim!" Tom muttered, and dashed past the man and the other students to jump into the lake with a tremendous splash.

"The squid'll get 'im!" The angry looking boy yelled.

"Ooooh, my new robes! You ruined them!" The girl wailed.

"Was that Thomas Parkington?" Sabrina inquired calmly.

The man, his face even whiter now, began calling for order and, at least, brief silence, but his words were completely lost in the yelling, screaming mêlée.

"Please! Boys and girls, quiet down! It is all right – stop that! – I mean, wait – get out of the water now young man! This instant – oh, wait; Miss, please! Stoppit!!!"

"Tom Parkington jumped in?" Angelina asked, clutching her wand with held back interest.

"I think it was him – he said something about being scared of boats. Although I don't see how swimming is any less strenuous." Sabrina whispered in way of a reply, standing on tiptoe to try and get a glimpse of the action.

"He must be very brave to do that." Angelina cooed.

"Or completely mad." Sabrina said off-handedly as she shoved another student roughly out of her way.

"Get out of that lake, young man! Now!" The pale man cried desperately.

"But," Tom gasped, quite a few meters now from the shore. "I, can't stand – boats!"

"I don't care what you can or can't stand! At this school, you do as you're told! Now swim back here! You've caused quite a commotion already and I can't take anymore of it!" The small man's face had turned a bright shade of pink now and he was apparently quite flustered as he stomped the ground and cried loudly again to Tom.

Tom allowed himself to drift a bit closer, and that was all the man needed, he reached out and caught hold of the back of Tom's robes and pulled him forcefully back to shore, panting and cursing under his breath as he did so.

Tom coughed and spluttered as he stood, shivering and looking longingly back at the water through the crowd that had quickly gathered about him.

To all the questions asked of him, he only answered blatantly, "Bloody unfair, I tell you, bloody unfair." And the other students could get nothing else out of him about why he had so swiftly jumped into the lake after hearing of the boats.

"Now… Into the bloody boats, girls and boys! Now! Or you'll have detention for the rest of the year and you won't have even stepped over the threshold of the castle to get it!"

~*~

Note2: Well, there you have it, an introduction to Thomas James Laurence William Parkington. What are your criticisms, points, praises or thoughts on Tom and his exploits so far?

As you may have guessed, Tom will get into some considerably more interesting escapades once at Hogwarts, so if you found this a bit dull (which I don't see how this could be dull…), you will be more interested definitely by the next chapter.

Well, tootles - IMP


	2. Pop Go the First Years

TOM

TOM

By Imp (With the assistance of A small Bomb)

Chapter 2

Note: Back with the second chapter here – and can you believe I only got _one_ review on the last? Of course I must thank **Sida** for reviewing. Still, she was the only one to do it.

But now to business: Tom will soon be faced with Hogwarts and the imminent Sorting Ceremony, along with other problems…

~*~

At the front of the small convoy of boats, rowing themselves across the lake, the pale man was muttering exasperatedly to himself and leaning unconsciously forward, willing the convoy to speed its pace and rid him of his obnoxious burden of new students.

"At last… Never thought I'd get them in these things… I haven't had so much trouble since the squid tried to eat a student's cloak!" 

Near the back in a small, tired, dingy looking bark, Tom huddled, wondering miserably why his first day had to be so unhappy and trying to ignore the two others in his unsteady floating object, as he fittingly called the boat. What a mess! It would have been so much easier to swim…

"Hey you! Back there!" Someone called from the nearest boat. 

Tom raised his head slightly and again saw Devin's blond hair, now shining in the moonlight.

"What?" He said, wondering whether Devin remembered him from the station, or from his misadventure in the lake.

"Tom Parkington, right?"

"Yes." Tom responded unhappily as he observed the two boats had drifted closer.

"You like to make trouble, Parkington?"

"Oh, yes!" Tom said, brightening. "I'm extremely good and making things explode."

The other students' talk had slowly died down, and most of them were now listening to Devin and Tom's quiet converse.

"We could play some good tricks on those bloody mudbloods, don't you think?" Devin inquired.

Tom did not reply at first; had Devin actually said _mudblood?_ Well, this certainly was going to be different from London. He began to respond, but he was rudely cut off by the small, pale man who had just been informed of Devin's "questionable language".

"Mr. Avery! Did I hear correctly? Mudbloods, boy?" The man cried.

Tom ducked down to avoid trouble as he watched Devin receive a lecture on prejudice; he noticed distantly that his acquaintance was purposefully looking bored and superior, absently dipping his hand into the water as the man droned on about the equality of muggle-born witches and wizards to that of the purebloods.

"Oh, Tom!" Angelica's voice made Tom jump and tip the boat dangerously before he could pretend that he was not there.

"Tom! You weren't talking to that nasty slytherin, were you?" Angelica yelled from another boat, almost four meters away

"Yes I was talking to him!" Tom cried, annoyance clear in his tone. "And he hasn't even be sorted, so you can't know if he's a slytherin!"

"Young lady! I've just been explaining prejudice to Mr. Avery, do I have to lecture you all?" The man cried.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir…" Angelica purred, putting on her most winning smile.

"Yes, I'm sure…" The man said absently as the boats glided close to the castle and into a small harbor like dent in the stone around the it; a door stood open in the rock face of the lower part of the school, and a young woman stood there, her hands on her hips.

"Gladden! You are ten minutes late! The whole school is waiting to eat supper and you're out here chatting with the first years!" She snapped, her whole body straight as a pin.

"I'm sorry, professor," The man gasped as he sprang out of the boat and tried unsuccessfully to coax the students to do the same. "But, we had a bit of an interruption and – come out, Miss! – and someone…ah, fell in – please, Miss Talents, just stand up – and you see, I was actually late… Mr. Avery! If you can't help, at least don't make this harder!"

The woman exhaled angrily and began to get the students out of the boats herself, ignoring Gladden's excuses.

"You should have been the caretaker!" She muttered.

"Yes! Th-that's what I say!" Gladden gasped, finally just pulling the students one by one out of their boats and shoving them toward the Entrance.

"I hate boats! I told you!" Tom cried as the woman pulled his soggy bark toward her and helped the other two students out before squinting at him and asking, "What happened to you?"

"I told you, I hate boats!" He cried again, before springing out himself and coming dangerously close to slipping into the water again.

"Into a queue, please children, a straight line here and follow me!" The woman called, gesturing for them to follow and glancing toward Tom, her brow furrowed in slight confusion.

Tom stumbled in behind the girl he had spoken to on the platform, with Angelica behind him and Devin behind her and Sabrina in last; Devin was warding off Sabrina's shoves and pushes as best he could and Angelica was yelling that it wasn't fair that she was stuck between him and Tom without her friend.

"Please, quiet down. Stop shoving and pushing and follow!" The woman cried.

"Easy for her to say…" Devin muttered, stomping down hard and Sabrina's toe.

"He stepped on my foot!" Sabrina yelled. "He meant to! He stomped on my foot!"

"Of course I bloody well meant to!" Devin responded, glaring angrily at Angelica's back as he ducked a swipe Sabrina meant for his head.

Tom plugged his ears and started to think again about the prospect of being sorted into Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff; he didn't much mind the idea of either Slytherin or Gryffindor, but he didn't think he could bear being stuck with the loyal, quiet Hufflepuff's or the studious Ravenclaws. The Slytherins and Gryffindors definitely had more fun, he thought to himself. 

Tom soon found though that keeping his ears plugged was not the wisest course of action, as he ran into a wall without hearing the professor's warning and fell backwards on top of Angelica.

"What's wrong with you?" Angelica cried, shoving him back at the wall before thinking better of it and pulling him back.

"With me?" Tom muttered. "Nothing wrong with _me_." He rubbed his nose ruefully and noticed that they were all in a small room and that the professor had vanished. "Where are we?" He asked suddenly.

"Oh, I suppose your ears weren't the only things shut! Are you blind?" Angelica said peevishly, turning her back on him and, shoving Devin aside, going to find Sabrina.

"Oh, nice girlfriend," The angry looking boy who had commented continuously on the squid and its eating habits during the boat ride yelled from across the room.

"Girlfriend, where?" Tom said, looking around anxiously. 

"Everyone, come now, we're going to the Sorting! Please, follow me!" The woman had reappeared and was now trying unsuccessfully to get all of the new students to follow.

"But, what if I'm sorted into, n-nasty Slytherin!" A small, toe-headed girl wailed.

"Shut yer trap and don't insult the slytherins!" Another student snapped. 

"You don't have to worry, " Devin interjected. "No one would ever dare insult Salazar Slytherin's memory by placing you in his house."

The small girl began to cry and Tom felt a bit sorry for her, in a distant sort of way. 

The turmoil in the small room only became worse as each and every one of the students weighed in on the argument, each taking the side of either the girl, or her attackers and yelling at the top of their lungs all manner of insults. Tom prudently stepped aside, but instead of being wise and staying completely out of the conflict, he took a small round object from his pocket and, wending his way through the angry mob, set it in the centre of the room and touched it with his wand. There was an odd fizzling sound and Tom dove to the side, dragging Devin with him before a loud boom shook the room and a myriad of sparks flew into the air, making the oddest whistling sound, followed by a series of small explosions that sent the other students into a panicked frenzy.

Tom crouched in the corner, laughing so hard he could hardly move; Devin slowly stood and surveyed the mayhem before ducking down and inquiring intensely, "What _did_ you do?"

But Tom was laughing too hard to answer, so Devin only congratulated him soundly and slipped away to find out how Angelica and her companion were faring in the crazed mob of angry and panicked students.

~*~

Twenty minutes later, the woman had finally quieted everybody, and was attempting in vain to find out what had happened and who had done it: no one knew. Completely unable to discover the exact problem, or even the exact thing or person that had caused it, she gave up and decided just to take the students to the Great Hall and be done with them. This time, they followed her meekly, all looking a bit worse for their experiences in the melee; Tom and Devin ended up in the back of the queue. Tom had purposefully gone to the back so as not to be noticed if he suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, and Devin had ended up there to avoid Sabrina and Angelica, who were convinced that he was the one who had blown whatever it was up. 

"Parkington, how did you do that?" Devin asked again, his eyes alight with interest.

Tom, trying not to laugh, began to explain, "You see, I've got all these fireworks and explosives that I've fiddled with and turned harmless," he gasped and tried to make another fit of laughter look like a coughing fit. "And I've made some things that do the strangest things – I brought that last thing in my pocket, in case I needed it you know, and I couldn't help using it!Did you see those sparks? All rainbow coloured!" Tom looked absolutely contented as thought back on his explosion. "Wasn't it great?" 

"It was perfect! You should have seen that mudblood's face when your thing exploded! She looked like she was going to faint!" Devin smiled slightly and then turned back toward the boy ahead of him, trying to see over the other's head.

The first years were suddenly dazzled by the bright light from the Great Hall, and there were numerous sighs and a few startled cries at the brilliance of the place and the grand scale of its size. Tom walked with his head back, looking at the ceiling that seemed to be the sky and no ceiling at all; Devin appeared to be the only one that looked about calmly. An old hat, with patches and small tears dotting its grey-black surface sat on a small stool at the end of the Staff table, all eyes seemed to be fixed on it as the bedraggled line of first years lined up and the professor took out a scroll and began reading names.

"Anders, Laura." She called, and the small girl who had been afraid she would end up in Slytherin timidly stepped forward, and at a sign from the woman, she took the hat and set it atop her head. It cried out immediately, to the amazement of Tom and his fellows, "Ravenclaw!" The girl sprang up and ran to the Ravenclaw table, where her new classmates were obviously congratulating her.

"Avery, Devin!" The woman cried.

Devin strode up to the stool and put the hat on his head quietly, sitting on the stool and staying motionless; Tom watched quietly, wondering if the Hat could put his acquaintance anywhere but Slytherin. A few more moments passed, and the Hat cried loudly, "Slytherin!"

Devin rose and walked to the Slytherin table, smiling in a way that quite confused Tom.

"Damon, Laurence!"

Another boy walked to the front and set the hat on his head; he was sent to Gryffindor but Tom didn't much care. He pulled some soggy paper out of his pocket and began folding it into a small paper plane, something he'd learned from his mum; when it was finished, he tapped it lightly with his wand and sent it flying into the hair of the student just called up to the Hat. The girl screamed and pulled the damp paper out of her hair, tearing it and dropping it hurriedly to the floor and hastening her pace to the Hat. Tom thought this was quite a waste of a good plane and he hurriedly pulled more paper out of his pocket. Soon, there were four small planes zooming about above the students, having a feigned dogfight and evading each other's imaginary fire.

The spectators' attentions were gradually drawn away from the Sorting and to Tom's planes, flying high above the tables and assorted wizards and witches; their number had increased by now and everyone's eyes, even the headmaster's, were watching in bemused silence Tom's creations, only the professor holding the scroll was not interesting in the mock aerial display, she was angrily looking for the culprit who had interrupted the already belated ceremony. She called the next first year up ("Farthing, Larisa!") and as soon as the girl had put the Hat on, the professor strode angrily over to an oblivious Tom and tapped his shoulder.

"Mr. Parkington?" She said, in a voice loud enough for all to hear.

~*~

Note2: So, which house will Tom end up in? And will he be end up in the same house as Angelica and Sabrina? Or perhaps with Devin? Please, I want to know what you readers think.

Well, there you have it. Again: criticisms, points, praises, requests, suggestions…?


	3. Trouble, Tom and The Hat

Tom

Tom

Chapter 3

By Imp (With the assistance of A small Bomb)

Note: Next chapter. Tom is finally sorted, after of course, a few more students and a few more "problems". **–Imp**

~*~

At the Gryffindor table, a seventh year whispered softly to another boy sitting next to him, smiling mischievously. "We haven't had this much entertainment since the Weasley Twins! Did you hear that explosion from down the hall? I'd bet my broomstick whoever sent those muggle-planes up there was responsible for that too."

"Do you think so?" the boy replied. "But how could a first year cause such a commotion? It must be Peeves."

"No," the seventh year contradicted. "Look." He pointed to the line of students waiting to be sorted; there, a girl had just taken up the Hat, but the seventh year was not pointing to her, he was gesturing to a boy, with dark hair and a wrinkled, damp-looking robe, who looked as though he was absently playing with his wand.

"You see there?" 

"Yes," the other boy said.

"You see Professor MacAlistor?"

"Of course! What are you getting at Wesley?"

"She's tapping that boy on the shoulder, look how angry she looks."

"Well yes, but that doesn't – " They were both cut off suddenly as the professor snapped sharply at the boy.

~*~

"Mr. Parkington?!"

Tom jumped. "W-what?" he said, quite startled.

"Those planes," Professor MacAlister said softly. "They didn't just appear out of nowhere did they?"

"No, 'course not, Professor. I flew 'em up there." Tom said innocently, waving his wand and bringing all the planes to a crashing demise in the centre of the Hufflepuff table, where they caught fire after flying through the candles and caused the disgruntled Hufflepuffs to dump their pumpkin juice rapidly over the burning (amazingly) still damp paper.

The professor gave a strained smile and said in a low voice, " I will speak to you later." She then turned away, back to the job of sorting the first years in an orderly fashion.

~*~

"You see?" The seventh year exclaimed. "I told you it was that little first year; he's going to be in a bloody lot of trouble once MacAlister's done with him!"

"I suppose you're right – my gosh! Look, he's dumped the planes on the Hufflepuff's table, and they've caught fire!" The other gasped.

"I told you he's going to be worth watching."

~*~

Larisa Farthing had been sent to Slytherin and MacAlister was continuing to call up students, keeping a wary eye on Tom as he whistled the United States' national anthem quietly to himself.

"Amanda, Hallion!" She called. Amanda went to Hufflepuff, as did the student after next, James Jett.

"Illani, Evan!" Was sorted into Gryffindor after a long silence from the Hat, as was "Inya, Junko!"

"Jones, Angelica!" The professor snapped. Tom's whistling broke off abruptly and his face seemed to pale at the thought of ending up in the same house, the same year as Angelica.

The Hat took a while on Angelica, and Tom could see her silently mouthing "Gryffindor", why Gryffindor, Tom wasn't quite sure, but he didn't think she fit the description of a Gryffindor at all.

"Sl-" The Hat began, but Angelica shook her head violently and it shut its rip of a mouth and seemed to contemplate a bit further. "Ravenclaw!" Angelica sat a moment, and then stood stiffly, set the Hat down a bit roughly, and stomped imperiously to the Ravenclaws' table. Tom sighed; he didn't expect to be sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Lorrel, Senna!" Was next; she went to Gryffindor and Tom saw a few people at that table waving energetically to her as she happily skipped to her new classmates.

"Madison, Daren!" Was immediately sent to Ravenclaw and "Marine, Lev!" was sorted into Slytherin just as "Melnikov, Nikolai!" was. Jason Penn was sent to Gryffindor, and Tom knew his name would soon be called…

"Parkington, Thomas!" MacAlister said, a sour look clouding her face. Tom swallowed, but strode bravely up to the Hat and dropped it over his head with a flourish. A small voice suddenly spoke in his mind; its light, almost musical tone made Tom smile, but its words had a more dire affect on him.

Hmmm… Thomas James Laurence William Parkington, is it? You're a hard one, boy. You don't meet someone like you often… Ha! I haven't had such a confusing mind since Albus Dumbledore, although you're very different… Ah, you're a bright chap, yes… Reckless, oh yes, quite oblivious to unexpected challenges… Brave… Cunning… Loyal to a good friend or family member… Again, dangerously reckless… The Sorting Hat's talk seemed a bit confusing to the mind it spoke to; Tom twisted his face into an odd expression and muttered under his breath, "Chatty little hat…" he sneezed. "And too dusty!"

Dusty am I? You would be too if you were made of cloth and had been around for hundreds of years… Oh yes, I can hear you. What do you think? Do you want a certain house? No? You think the Hufflepuffs are boring and the Ravenclaws too sedate? I see… But you don't mind the sneaky Slytherins or the bold Gryffindors? You know you are a puzzle… I could put you any one of the houses… Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw… But, no? Ah… You're hard-working, I see, when it suits your purposes…and you're extremely funny to someone with a good sense of humour. Alright, how about…- 

The Sorting Hat seemed to yell something completely unintelligible, and then it corrected itself, and was silent. Tom was quite bewildered, but he was determined to be either a Gryffindor or a Slytherin, and so he imitated the hat's voice and cried, "Gryffindor!" before jumping up and throwing the surprised Hat away. He raced across the hall and stumbled into a seat at the end of the table to the sounds of cheers from the other Gryffindors. But his housemates would soon find Tom was not so much a blessing as they thought…

~*~

The next student to be sorted was Zora Quorrel: she went swiftly to Slytherin and was followed by Yelena Raikov, who was also sent to Slytherin. Leonard Rayle was sorted into Gryffindor directly before Sabrina, Angelica's friend ended up in Ravenclaw almost immediatly. The last three first years took a bit longer though, but eventually the Hat sent two of them (Michael Teil and Lana Vetteilian) to Hufflepuff and the last (Josef Zane), to Gryffindor.

Tom meanwhile, was wondering blankly why he had yelled Gryffindor instead of Slytherin and why the Hat had not revealed the mistake and gotten him into even more trouble; vaguely he saw Devin watching him, and he thought that if anyone had realized his trick, it was Devin Avery. Tom decided stubbornly that no matter what the other Gryffindors had to say about the Slytherins, he would still keep his contact with Devin, there was no one else he knew that might assist him in his trouble-making.

The feast had finally come to the students' plates, how, Tom didn't know; he ate his desert and left the rest; he was becoming quite sleepy… The thought that he hadn't actually had to jump off the castle to enter Hogwarts drifted distantly through his mind and he smiled a bit, thinking what he would tell Link, his little brother…

~*~

Tom woke with a start, looking around confusedly, completely disoriented. He knew he was in Hogwarts, and that he had been at the feast…but he didn't remember coming here.

The red drape of a canopied bed met his sleep-clouded eyes and he looked down at his hands, and then twisted around to see a large, fluffy white pillow with a dent in it, supposedly from his own head. Was he already in his dormitory? Was it morning yet?

He cleared his throat and shoved the sheets and red and gold quilt off the bed in his haste to get disentangled from them and found that he had, although he couldn't quite remember it, jumped into bed with his robe on, and his shoes. He rubbed his eyes and blinked; sunlight was filtering into the enclosed space of his bed and he could hear low voices, whispering conspiratorially from around the other side of the red curtain.

Tom finally got out of bed, or fell out, to put it more precisely, startling his roommates who jumped up when they heard him hit the floor.

"You certainly slept in. Did someone slip you a sleeping potion?" One of the boys asked.

"Hey, you're that Parkington kid who sent those paper-things up in the air before you were sorted, right?" Another said.

"You're lucky we don't have classes on the first day, you'd have already missed all the morning ones, it's almost lunchtime!" The third muttered.

"Hello." Was all Tom managed to say, still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he surveyed his new roommates. Should've gone to Slytherin… He thought dismally.

"Not very talkative, is he Josef?" The first boy said, grinning.

"Nope. Hey, Leonard, do we have any water to wake our half-asleep roommate up with?" Josef said.

"Uh-no." Leonard said, looking out the window darkly.

"I'll wake my own self up, thank you very much…" Tom muttered, turning and stumbling from the room.

The other boys were all silent as he exited and after a few moments a loud crash reverberated through the small dorm and the Josef broke into peals of laughter.

"Fell off the first step, I suppose." Leonard said blankly, still staring out the window

"I'd say he did! Jason – " Josef gasped. "Remember last night! – " 

"Don't remind me!" Jason said sourly, looking almost as dour as Leonard.

~*~

Tom had, in fact, fallen off the trick first step and tumbled down half the stairs before he could right himself and stand, if a bit unsteadily. He wondered unhappily why he hadn't been warned of such an obstacle and why he hadn't noticed it himself before stepping off of it. He quickly pushed these thoughts from his mind though, and decided to try and find the Great Hall to get something to eat; breakfast or lunch, he didn't much care, as he was feeling quite starved all the same. Down the rest of the steps, (more carefully this time) and into the Common Room Tom went, ignoring the few odd stares he got from the older Gryffindors, he exited through a hole in the wall, that he soon found was the back of a portrait, one of a very large, smiling lady.

"I remember you," the lady said as he began to leave her behind. "You're that boy that came up to me last night and demanded to get in, but you didn't know the password!"

"That's nice…" Tom muttered and wandered away, thinking that sooner or later, if he didn't find the Great Hall, he would find someone who could take him to it.

~*~

Note: The end of chapter three. Well, Tom has tricked his way into Gryffindor and is now not quite sure he belongs there. What will he think up next? That's quite a mystery, even to him. Well: comments, questions, suggestions, criticisms, praises…? They're all welcome and I'm wondering why HP reviewer are so stingy, I know that **Sida** can't be the only one reading this. Ah well, Tootles-IMP


	4. The Slytherins and The Gryffindors

TOM

TOM 

Chapter 4

By Imp (With the assistance of A small Bomb)

Note: Not much to say. Tom has a run in with a group a Gryffindors waging war against Slytherin and ends up slightly entangled in their problems. He meets another Slytherin later on, and begins wondering if the first years are all as strange as the ones he has so far been acquainted with.

~*~

Tom finally, after wandering for quite some time around and through long corridors and traipsing in and out of deserted classrooms, ran into a group of first and second year Gryffindors, crouched behind a large statue of Albus Dumbledore, all intently watching the opposite end of the hall.

"Hello." Tom greeted them merrily.

They all jumped or started like frightened rabbits, and one of them let out a quiet squeak. A boy spun about and, seeing Tom, let out an exasperated breath.

"Parkington! You're a Gryffindor, gosh, I was afraid you were that Quorrel girl." He said.

"Quorrel?" Tom questioned blankly.

"Yes, one of the new Slytherins. She's a fiend if I ever saw one – wait, duck down, quick Parkington!"

Tom ducked instinctively; a few seconds passed and the boy motioned to Tom that he could rise now.

"What was that about, Evan?" One of the other students asked the boy.

"One of the Slytherins," Evan said quickly and then turning back to Tom. "Parkington, I'm Evan Illani – the first years have elected me to command their – what did you call it, Dana? – oh yes, their war against the Slytherins and we've set a trap here for one of the new ones –eh, what's his name again, Lauren? Oh, Avery. And – "

"Avery?" Tom broke in, looking quite surprised.

"Yes – he's that blond haired kid, the one with the odd eyes? They look almost violet, don't they, Dana?" Evan responded happily.

"Uh oh…" Tom murmured, his face suddenly a bit white.

"What was that?" Evan said. "Oh, sorry – I haven't introduced you. Here, this is Dana Wellington, a second year, she's our strategist and this, this is Lauren Penn, second year and charms expert. Oh, uh, Parkington, what did you say your first name was?"

"Tom." Tom said, frowning at the ground and fiddling absently with his wand. If they were after Devin – well he couldn't very well allow that, no matter which house they belonged to, or he belonged to, or Devin belonged to, he couldn't just, as he thought of it, betray the small trust he built up with Devin during the first night. No, he just couldn't…

  
"Oh, Tom, well this is Li Chen, he's our decoy usually, he's a very good actor you know, and he makes the most hilarious diversions – they work quite well. Here is Senna Lorrel, she's another first year, but she very good at hexes and we already managed to trick a Slytherin with her help."

Senna smiled lightly at Tom and waved.

"And last – but of course not the least, is Leonard Rayle – he's not here right now, he had something other he had to do…"

"I think he's my roommate." Tom said dismally.

"Really? Perfect! He can give you all the details on our activities and plans, and get you into a spot helping out our sabotage of the Slytherins practice brooms!" Evan cried energetically, pulling a pad of paper from his pocket and jotting something down quickly.

"He's not very chatty." Tom cut in, glancing around the corner that the other Gryffindors had been staring at.

"No, but that only means you won't be stuck for hours with someone who won't shut up – next time you see him, just tell him Illani wants him to explain… Ah, are particularly good at anything? You know, that might help us give the Slytherins a run for their money this year? I've heard that we Gryffindors haven't been too tough the last few years…" Evan ended sounding regretful and hanging his head.

"I can make anything explode." Tom said, a bit happier now that he had brought up explosives.

"Anything?" Senna asked shyly.

"Er, yes, I suppose so." Tom glanced a bit uncomfortably as Senna's shining eyes and twisted his hands around in his pockets.

"Capital!" Evan cried, "We'll have those sneaking snakes crawling back to their holes by Christmas!"

"Are they really as bad as all that? The Slytherins, I mean," Tom wondered aloud.

"Oh, they're worse," Evan muttered, frowning at his paper and chewing anxiously on what seemed to be a mix between a quill pen and a pencil.

"Down here, Parkington." Li said quietly, "If someone comes around the corner and sees you standing there, they'll be bound to find us too."

"But –" Tom said, thinking of the quickly vanishing prospect of lunch.

"Just sit down here!" Lauren snapped, before whispering to Evan.

Tom sat, thinking of what he would do if Devin came around the corner right then and was about to run into the Gryffindors' ambush. Tom became determined not to let Evan spring his trap, but he was not sure how he would do this without betraying the Gryffindors' trust, or Devin's. It will be an "accident" he decided firmly, beginning to think what he had originally thought of as a problem, could become an extremely entertaining and funny incident.

~*~

An hour passed uneventfully and Tom began wondering how long his fellow Gryffindors would sit silently, waiting for a Slytherin they had no way of knowing would come. He started to finger his wand impatiently, and then to twirl it… Finally he tapped it against the stone hem of Dumbledore's robe and it startled the whole group of patient first and second years by making a small popping noise and dying the stone bright blue. Tom smiled in a way that seemed not quite apologetic and went back to his musings, ignoring Senna who appeared to have some interest in what he was doing.

"What are you doing?" she finally whispered, looking over his shoulder intently.

"Thinking," Tom said, giving her his most devilish smile.

"Shhh!" Evan hissed, gesturing toward the end of the corridor urgently. "He's coming!"  
  


Tom turned, startled. He saw Devin's hair, something he didn't think anyone could miss, shining briefly in the light coming from a stained glass window and heard the soft tap of shoes on stone.

He tapped the statue with his wand and rolled a small, round object into the hall; it began popping and whistling, and then, before the Gryffindors could get over the first shock of it, it started to scream one word.

"Slytherins! Slytherins!" Its high shrill voice shrieked, more whistles issuing from its small form.

"What in the world is that?" Evan hissed, looking frantically at each surprised face behind the statue, even Tom's face could have been interpreted as surprised, although it reflected more his extreme pleasure at how well his invention was doing.

The small sphere suddenly changed its cry as Tom casually tapped the stone on the floor, a meter from the thing.

"Can't trick us! Can't trick us!" It now called, slurring the words.

"Run! Quick! Pretend you just came around the corner, or something – we can't let the Slytherins know who was responsible for – I don't know! Go!" Evan gasped, slipping from behind the statue and acting as though he had come from the classroom close by.

Tom sat quietly as all the Gryffindors found a different way to appear inconspicuously in front of Devin, who had stopped in amazement before the squealing, screaming ball.

"What is that?!" Senna cried disgustedly; she had just walked up behind Evan as though she had followed him, her face mirroring the look on Devin's face, although her look was completely feigned. Tom sat still, hoping his new companions would not notice they he had stayed behind, hiding, while they all saved themselves. "Is that _thing_ another stupid Slytherin trick?"

"I don't know what the bloody thing is," Devin spat. "Isn't it one of yours?"

"Mine?" Evan gasped. "Are you kidding; it's too idiotic to be anything a Gryffindor would mess with!"

"Insulting me now, are you, Illani?" Devin growled, drawing his wand from his pocket threateningly.

"Oh no, I'm only speaking the truth." Evan said, smiling as though daring Devin to do more than threaten.

Tom had crawled almost all the way to the bend in the corridor while the Gryffindors taunted Devin, and now he sprang up yelling.

"The Headmaster! He's coming!" He cried, motioning frantically for the other students to flee. "Quick! The Headmaster is coming! Run!"

The Gryffindors vanished without a thought as to how Tom had suddenly come from down the corridor and how he had known they would run, if he really had fled and then come running back. Devin slipped silently into an abandoned classroom before anyone could spot him and got out an extra door and into the corridor leading to the Ravenclaw common room. Tom, after seeing that his ruse had succeeded, sat down contentedly on the floor, retrieving his invention, which had stopped its screaming, as he did so.

"That was a masterpiece…" He murmured, smiling distantly. " Never done better! Ha! That's a new high for my scorebook… Didn't even do so good scaring Aunt Hildy…"

"Done what? What was perfect?"

Tom was jolted out of his happy reverie quite unexpectedly by a small, slightly haughty voice, that seemed too near by to be true; he looked up to see a short, extremely thin girl, with greenish-brown eyes, raven-black hair, and a half scowl, half glare on her face.

"What?" Tom asked, unsure of what she had said.

"Done what? What have you done?"She repeated.

"Who are you?" Tom inquired, eyeing his new companion cautiously.

"I'm Zora Quorrel –" The girl said proudly. "Are you the boy who made the paper-flying things fall on the Hufflepuff table the Sorting night?"

"Er, yes. Nice aerial show they made before I had to crash them though. Pity I had to crash them so soon…" Tom said, smiling now slightly.

"What did you do?" Zora now repeated, her eyes flashing strangely.

"Oh, well, just made some trouble, you know – very fun, you should try it – I-I have to go now, though, I made an –er, appointment with a Professor you see – " Zora's intense stare was beginning to unnerve Tom just a bit as he hastily tried to excuse himself.

"Parkington!"

Tom scrambled to his feet at the sight of Professor MacAlister coming around the corner with a scowl on her face and a sharp word on her lips. Zora only stood where she was, glaring venomously at the professor and sniffing disdainfully.

"Oh, hello, Professor." Tom smiled.

"See me at my office after supper tonight. I need to speak with you about your inopportune aerial display last night." MacAlister said swiftly before striding down the corridor and out of sight.

Tom frowned and started off down the hall, before stopping suddenly and turning back to Zora.

" Do you know where the Great Hall is?" He asked, hoping desperately that she did; he was feeling extremely hungry.

"Of course, it's in Hogwarts." Zora said, smiling condescendingly.

Tom's face fell. "No, but could you show me how to get there?"

"Jump out the window and you'll fall through the hole in the roof just outside it." Zora said, pulling a watch with red and black stripes across it out of her pocket and looking at it intently. "Good-bye." She said, vanishing just as quickly as the frightened Gryffindors had into a side hall.

Tom glanced a bit apprehensively at the window, but he was soon pulling it open and climbing into a precarious perch on the windowsill, wondering absently to himself as he did this, whether all the students at Hogwarts were as odd as the ones he had made the acquaintance of, or if it was just the first years.

~*~

Note2: Are all the students as strange as the few Tom has encountered? And will poor Parkington really try to take Zora Quorrel's advice? Is Devin annoyed at Tom for becoming a Gryffindor and will Tom take the Slytherins or the Gryffindors side in the ongoing conflict between the two houses? Or will he perhaps have his own side to the conflict? Of course, the answers arrive as we follow Tom and discover more about how Hogwarts has changed, how the Wizarding world has changed, and just what a different point of view we get from Mr. Parkington. Good night now **-IMP**


End file.
